Olympus Zuiko 50 mm F/1.8 Lens

I bought one of these to have a fast 50mm lense for my E500. I also bought a box of them from a seller here on eBay. They all cleaned up very nicely and are now in the hands of happy DSLR users.

After seeing how well the less than perfect lenses performed I spent the extra money and acquired one in perfect condition with not one disappointment.

The lense has excellent imaging capabilities. I saw no typical flaring when the sun was behind my subjects or ghosts. Everything was crisp and sharp even with the extremes of lighting situations.

I give it very high marks when used with extension tubes or a bellows for close up images. Where I've seen other lenses start to fail this one seems to get better.

My suggestion is look for the ones with the black edges around the f/stop ring and filter thread (black nose version). The multicoatings on the lenses I've had resulted in noticeably better images compared to the silver nose version.

The lenses have a nice compactness to them which was always Olympus's specialty and strong point. It makes them easy to handle and carry around making it much more likely that you'll have your camera with you for that special picture.

They all have 49mm filter threads so their filters and hoods are not large either.

This makes an excellent portrait lense for all the new DSLRs that Olympus is selling. You can isolate the subject without having to be too close and blur the background with the wider fstops that you can't get with the zoom/kit lenses.

Some might say it's soft wide open and I would disagree. Even if it was soft wide open do you really want a lense to show every pore, nook and cranny on a person's face when you're taking their portrait? Such pictures end up being very unflattering. If the purpose of your portrait is to highlight the flaws then I suggest looking at the 50mm macro version. That will get you what you're going for.

For general photography with a mild telephoto perspective and fast speed on the Olympus DSLRs this is the affordable choice. You can even get adapters for your Canon EF mount cameras.

The review asks what do I dislike about this lens. I have to say I dislike the fact I didn't know about this high quality optic until this past year.

There's nothing to dislike.

A 1980s era Zuiko/Olympus OM lens.

My initial reaction to this lens is positive. It is a very bright single focal lens. Color is great. I also love the look of this lens on the Oly-500 body.

I chose a no-name Chinese 4/3rds adapter for $32.00 instead of the Olympus adapter that costs $200.00. -- Works fine.

There is no communication between the lens and the body so EXIF data does not include f-stop or focal. Focus and aperture setting is manual on the lens barrel.

All things considered, this is a *very* economical way to get a bright normal lens. I only paid $25.00 for the lens on eBAY.

Can't wait to see how this lens works for landscapes.

It seems where you see an Olympus OM camera, nine time out of ten you see a 50mm f/1.8 lens on it. Perhaps not flashy or otherwise a lens to show off, all the same it is a bread and butter solid performer. Having collected, bought and sold many varying pieces of Olympus gear over the years, the 50mm f/1.8 lens continues to be one of the more consistent and solid performers. It is relatively inexpensive, yet if you get a good copy (not too worn or beat up over time), it is likely still very sharp. Small and easy to handle, if you are looking for a simple manual focus 50mm lens with a wide aperture, and don't want to spend a ton of money, this is the lens for you. It can also be mounted to a modern digital SLR along with the proper adaptor ring (also inexpensive) for your type of camera.

The lens is in great condition and with the Olympus OM-to-4/3 adapter I can use it on my Olympus E-400.I bought it because I heard a lot of good talk about the OM lenses and wanted to test it. also the price was reasonable.
I took the camera with me one day when I was roaming the city and I enjoyed it very much.
Because the view finder of the E-400 is a bit small and this camera does not have the live view option, it should be taken into account while composing a picture to prevent a miss. however, there is something refreshing in taking a picture the old style - setting the aperture and the focus. the shutter speed should be set from the camera itself in shutter speed priority.
The results are interesting and great. it is very good for macro photos and the bokeh is wonderful. note that because of the crop factor of the 4/3 camera, this lens on this a 4/3 camrea is actually almost a 100mm lens.
The optics of this lens compared to the kit lenses I have is unmatched in my eye. I absolutly adore it. recently I bought a second hand Olympus Pen E-p2 and I intend to try this lens on the new camera as well.

This a great lens to use with a Micro 4/3 camera with an adapter. It is like using an old school SLR 35mm Film Camera with a Modern Digital Format. Really a fun lens and great picture quality. Except for landscape photos.
I do not recommenced for landscape shots.It does not focus real well at infinity with the adapter I have. I do not have a correction glass in my adapter. It may work better with a correction glass adapter. It does really well at shorter range and you can really control the depth of field. I have an Olympus PEN E-P1 I use with this lens.